10 Tips For Renting Or Leasing An Apartment Or Condo

If you are in the market to rent or lease an apartment or condo follow these 10 tips.

1. Choose An Area Make a list of areas that you are willing to live in. If you are able to commute you may want to include suburbs or outlying communities. When choosing areas you will need to consider commuting times and costs to work to decide if an area is worthwhile. You should also consider crime rates in the area and anything else that is important to you. Such as nearness to a hospital, transit, or schools.

2. What’s Important Make a list of what’s important to you. Pets, two baths, security, extra parking, windows, dishwasher to name a few examples. Once you’ve made your list break it down into two categories. Gotta have and would be nice to have.

3. Check The Area Once you begin to look at suites be sure to do more than examine the suite. Check the hallways, the common grounds, the laundry facilities. Have a walk around and watch that everything appears well maintained, that the landscaping is done. Watch for dangers such as broken hand rails or dimly lit parking areas.

4. The Neighbors Once you find a place that seems to meet your needs, then start talking to neighbors. If you have to knock on their door and tell them who you are. Most will be willing to chat. Find out how responsive the manager is, how fast repairs gets done, and how they feel about the building overall. Let them chatter and see what they have to say. Be sure to ask them if there are things they don’t like.

5. Shared Facilities Ask the manager about shared facilities such as laundry rooms, gyms, swimming pools, or saunas. Find out who is allowed to use these facilities and if there are hours of operation that must be obeyed.

6. Security Check to see if the building has adequate security. Is there a security system at the entrance to the building. Is it adequate? Do all the locks work? Are the windows secured? If it is a gated community find out if there are hours of operation where there is an attendant and find out how you gain access after hours.

7. Costs Besides your rent or lease find out if there are additional costs. Do you pay utilities if so how much do they run. Are there additional charges for heating, maintenance, etc. Is the suite on its own thermostat, is there air conditioning. Ask the manager what the average utility bill runs in the summer and the winter months.

8. The Paper Work Ask the manager to see a copy of the lease or rental agreement. Once signed this is your legal obligation to pay the amount stated. But the lease will also detail other important issues such as the terms of the lease, what conditions can cause an eviction, the restrictions on pets, what the security deposit is, what charges are incurred if you do not clean the suite when you move, and the length of the lease. Read the lease or rental agreement thoroughly and make sure you understand it.

Once you have found the perfect suite you’ll need to sign the lease or rental agreement. If there are any changes made to the agreement be sure both you and the manager sign for these changes. All that’s left to do is determine your possession date, then get busy packing. Looks like you’ve found yourself a new home!

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.